February 19, 3 p.m., inside Porto Sangra do Heroísmo, Azores.

A hotel called "Hot Springs" is open for business, and the owner, Tom Philip, is a well-known and capable man who has worked tirelessly to become a well-known inn in Angra de Mersmo since he took over the clountied inn 25 years ago. Although the decoration of the hotel is not luxurious, and the facilities are not advanced, the warmth and homeness that has been painstakingly created by many guests are very satisfied, and it is also a landmark in Angra Sangra de Heromas.

But not many people know that even Tom's wife and children who spend time with him don't know the details of him - he was originally an intelligence agent for British MI6. Twenty-five years ago, at the end of the First World War, he was given the assignment and sent to Angra Sansmo, and even the money to buy the hotel was all from MI6 - the shrewd boss did not pay for nothing, but told him that his salary for the next 20 years had been fully advanced and that he had to make a profit by running the hotel to support himself.

After receiving the task, he was very excited, and repeatedly recited the joint code given by his superiors, for fear that he would forget. While he was trying to run the hotel to get cover, he was also waiting for someone to come and contact him. He thought he would receive the task soon, but all that awaited him was disappointment. As time went on, he became more and more proficient in running the inn, but his excitement became calmer.

He lurked in Angra Sansmo, ran the hotel with all his heart, gradually got it on track, his business flourished, he married a wife, had children, started a family, and integrated everything he had into the city. Day after day, year after year, he waited for a signal, but Great Britain never contacted him as if there was no such person. One year, he couldn't bear this torture anymore, so he sneaked back to England under the pretext of visiting his family, and found that many of his classmates who had been training with him had disappeared, and his boss, who had given himself the code name "Crow", had died of the Spanish flu outbreak shortly after the end of the war.

Twenty years have passed quietly, and Tom has gradually transformed from a young man full of youthful energy to a middle-aged uncle, and when his children have left Sansmo to study in Portugal, he has become a completely forgotten pawn. In 1938, just a week before the German invasion of Austria, Tom was given a 20-year assignment - his superiors had told him that if no one contacted him within 20 years, he would automatically leave MI6 and be free, and he could do whatever he wanted except to reveal the secret. But he hadn't given up yet, he knew that there were spies from other countries on the island, and he could even make out some of them - many had stayed at his hotel at first, but many had left in a hurry, and he had watched as the spies changed in waves and waves, but he had never seen someone like him who had been lurking for so long.

In the past two days, he was a little unsettled, and the results of the Anglo-German North Sea Campaign had recently been announced all over the world, and it had caused an uproar in the port of Heromas: the German side swore that it had sunk a large number of warships of the Royal Navy, including 4 battleships and 8 cruisers, and that its own losses were not large; The British side announced that it had sunk two German heavy cruisers, severely damaged the capital ships such as Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, and Zeppelin, and also sank some small warships, and only lost some old warships, and the losses were negligible.

The Germans could not produce strong evidence, the photographs published in the newspapers were blurry, and the results they announced were so sensational that not many Portuguese believed them, but the results announced by the Royal Navy seemed more appropriate, and everyone agreed that the Germans were lying or bragging.

Instinctively, Tom knew something was wrong with the spy's professional sensibilities: if the Germans tried to lie, they didn't have to make up such a ridiculous result. There is only one reason for this kind of news: the Germans did have so many victories, or even if there were any discrepancies between the results and the real situation, the Germans thought that the gap was not too big and was within the range of tolerance. He had been thinking about it for a long time, but he quickly gave up - he had already left MI6 and was now a real Portuguese, so what was he worried about?

The commotion from the direction of the dock caught his attention, and the sound became louder and louder, as if there was a mess.

"Louis ......," he asked the little boy playing football in the yard, "why is there so much noise outside, what is going on?" ”

"Sir, I don't know, I'll go and see."

In less than 10 minutes, Louis stormed into the hotel and said to Tom, who was checking in the passengers, "Sir, there's a boat!" No, it's a warship! A lot of warships came up on the docks! I heard that it was German. ”

"What?" He was taken aback.

"You don't know yet?" The traveler who was ready to check in smiled, "I knew it before I came." The German fleet came and waited outside the harbor to ask for supplies, which the city government may not have agreed to at first. The Germans raised their artillery and the planes began to take off, looking ready to fight. We were frightened enough, but the Germans did not make a move against us, and the steamer hurried to the port, and it must have been a compromise between the two sides. ”

The attention of the other guests was also drawn to this, and one person asked, "It's not going to be a real fight, is it?" ”

"No...... We are neutral. ”

"What's the use of a neutral country? Didn't Germany attack the Netherlands and Denmark as well? ”

"It is not good for Hitler to fight us, and the Germans still expect to cross Spain and occupy us?"

"Then why didn't the city government agree to let the German fleet dock for supplies, which is completely permissible under the Neutrality Act."

"I guess I'm afraid of offending the British......"

The others were arguing with me one by one, and Tom couldn't listen anymore, so he told his wife to take charge of the hotel and go to the dock to see what was going on. The docks were already crowded, and everyone was drawn to watch the German fleet and point fingers at the mighty warships.

The rumors from the outside world were correct, and the German North Sea Fleet, whose whereabouts were erratic and had not been seen for a long time, suddenly appeared on the periphery of Sangra Sangra at about 1 p.m. and asked to enter the port for supplies and repairs, but the Portuguese authorities instinctively refused, but after facing the guns of Tirpitz and the demonstrative planes on the two aircraft carriers, the word "no" finally did not dare to say it, and could only obediently agree to the other party's request to enter the port. As a remedy, while admitting the German fleet to the shore, the municipality reported the emergency to Lisbon, which quickly informed the British side.

Tom, like many people, carefully observed the composition of the German fleet with a telescope, and there was a slight deviation from what was published in the newspapers: the German fleet seemed to be missing the Prinz Eugen and the Scharnhorst, but neither the Tirpitts nor the Zeppelin nor another unknown aircraft carrier did not seem to have major problems as the British had announced. Tom only felt his heart twitching.

The docks were full of pointers and critics, and there were a lot of hurried people with cameras taking quick pictures, and Tom knew they weren't spies, they were all well-informed, fearful journalists, and they were worried that there would be no big news that would make the headlines of tomorrow's newspapers.

His observation was not bad at all, the Scharnhorst had already turned ahead of schedule, and was accompanied by two destroyers to the Spanish port for urgent repairs.

At night, many people heard the roar of the motor, and Tom, who was preoccupied, had an instinctive anxiety, but he did not dare to go to the dock to see what was going on. After weighing the pros and cons of all sorts of pros and cons, he made up his mind that he must take the risk and observe. He had thought that the great movement of the German fleet was preparing to leave the port overnight, but upon closer inspection, he found a terrifying scene: the unknown aircraft carrier was spitting out tanks and armored vehicles one after another, and then a group of heavily armed soldiers were running out of the cabin.

He wanted to scream, but as if someone had choked him, he couldn't make a sound, and could only stare at him with frightened eyes. Soon, he knew that the alarm was completely useless, and the police and sentries on duty at the docks also noticed the Germans' abnormality, and the weak Portuguese, although they tried to stop them, turned into a retreat after the Germans opened fire decisively.

All the key points near the docks were occupied by the Germans, and by dawn everyone was surprised to find that the streets were full of heavily armed and patrolling German armored vehicles, and that all the key institutions, including the docks, warehouses, oil depots, telegraph offices, and city halls, had been taken over by the Germans - in a word, Angra Herosmo had been completely occupied by the Germans.

Tom didn't have to go out to know what was happening, and the Germans were reading over and over again the orders to enforce the state of emergency, and declaring a curfew from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. every night. Then one order after another was issued, and all the British and American cargo ships in the harbor were confiscated, but the Portuguese and other neutral ships remained unharmed.

Although the Lisbon authorities immediately protested to Germany and even threatened to resort to war, the tone quickly fell by noon on the same day: the troops on the northern and southern borders reported the discovery of German armored units, and there was also intelligence that the Scharnhorst was docked in the port of A Coruña in northern Spain. They didn't know that Scharnhorst was seriously injured.

Now, the global focus is on Heroísmo Heroísmo...... (To be continued.) )